A . Albert Einstein said: We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

B . Mark Twain said: India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history,the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most constructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

C . French scholar Romain Rolland said: If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

D . Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said:India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

"Many of the advances in the sciences
that we consider today to have been made in Europe
were in fact made in India centuries ago."

- Grant Duff
British Historian of India

"India was the motherland of our race
and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages.
India was the mother of our philosophy,
of much of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied in christianity... of self-government and democracy.
In many ways, Mother India is the mother of us all."
- Will Durant
- American Historian 1885-1981

CURRENT INFORMATION:

-There are 3.22 Million Indians in America. 38% of Doctors in America are Indians. 12% of Scientists in America are Indians. 36% of NASA employees are Indians. 34% of MICROSOFT employees are Indians 28% of IBM employees are Indians 17% of INTEL employees are Indians 13% of XEROX employees are Indians

-First democracy to elect a woman Prime Minister.
India is the 7th nuclear power in the world
India is the 5th largest economy in the world
India is the largest democracy in the world
India has the 2nd largest population in the world(could be a bad point)
India is the 4th nation in the world to have developed/or developing a nuclear submarine
India is the 5th nation in the world to be in the multi billion dollar space commerce business.
India is the 4th nation in the world to develop(or nearly to) ICBM's(can travel up to 14,000km)
India is the 3rd nation in the world, to be able to develop land based and sea based cruise missiles.

RELIGIOUS CONTRIBUTIONS
-gave the world Hinduism
-gave the world Bhuddism
-gave the world Sikhism

TECHNOLOGICAL/SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS
- the technique of algorithm used in computer science today.
- the science of algebra. (Indian's invented, Arabs took it when they invaded, and gave it to the then "primitive" Europeans)
- the concept of zero - on which ultimately rests the binary code which has given us all software including the WWW through which
you are accessing this site!
- the technique of manufacturing crystal (sugar)cane sugar
(the word sugar is derived from the Sanskrit term "Sharkara").
- the making of camphor (MODERN chemists know how important this chemical is).
- the making of tin (the technical English word for tin
is Cassiterite which is said to have been derived from the Sanskrit term
"Kasthira").
-believe it or not, Kung Fu is a derivation of Yoga---taught to the Chinese by an Indian Bhuddist Monk known as Bodidharma (ask any Kung Fu Grand Master, or check the internet for yourself).
-The earliest recorded use of copperware in India has been around 3000 B.C. the findings at Mohen-jo-daro and Harappa, bear this out The earliest documented observation of smelting of metals in India is by Greek Historians in the 4th Century B.C.

A .India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.

B.India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

C .The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700BC. more than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

D .Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software reported in Forbes magazine, July 1987.

E .Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization.

F .Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century.

G .The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'.

H .Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart.; Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days.

I .The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians.

J .Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India; Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th Century;The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 10**6(10 to the power of 6) whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early
as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 10**12(10 to the power of 12).

K .According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world.

L .USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of Wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

M .The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

N .According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.

O .Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.

P .Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery.Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipment were used.Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology,mbryology,digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.

Q .When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley(Indus Valley Civilization)

R .The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

I cant think anymore...dammit
Here's a list of some Indians in tech companies

Ken Bajaj CEO AppNet
P. Kaul CEO Hughes Network Systems (HNS)

Krishna Kushwaha Executive Vice President,
Research and Development cybercash

Sanju Bansal co-founder & COO MicroStrategy.

Rakesh Gangwal CEO US AirWays

Sanjay Kumar President and COO , computer associates

Ram Mukunda Chairman and CEO Startec

Reggie Aggarwal, Founder and CEO cvent.com

Bijan Moaveni Chief Operating Officer eglobe

Pat Sheehy – SVP, Marketing, Sales and Production Freddie Mac

Srinija Srinivasan - cofounder and Vice President Yahoo.

Amar Bose - of the almighty Bose sound systems.

Victor Menezes, soon to be head of Citibank, currently head of global operations.

one-third of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent, while 7% of its high-tech firms are led by an Indian ceo. Some success stories are well known, such as Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and Sabeer Bhatia, who founded Hotmail and sold it to Microsoft for $400 million. The number of New Economy millionaires of Indian descent is now in the thousands. Massachusetts' Gururaj Deshpande, co-founder of a number of network technology companies, is worth between $4 billion and $6 billion. Says Krish Prabhu, ceo of French telecom giant Alcatel's U.S. operations: "Indians have succeeded in the high-tech field, and don't face that glass ceiling now. They have a proven track record."

Six Indians led by Azim Hasham Premji of Wipro are among 39 “tech billionaires” outside the United States, more than half of them having achieved the status since July last, according the authoritative financial magazine “Forbes Global”.
Japan with 15 billionaires has the maximum number in the category followed by India and Germany with six each. Taiwan and Britain have two each. Honk Kong, France, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Spain and Sweden account for one each. (a little outdated now, from Reuter's i think)

Here's a couple other top websites started by Indians:

Infospace--top directory on the web

epinions--top review site

AskMe.com--one of top help sites

Exodus--top hosting service in world

Imandi.com--top reverse-marketing site

· Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.

· Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health

· scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, contracts, artificial legs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.

· When Europeans were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)

· The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in100 BC.

-believe it or not, India has a space program (some critics have put it at par with the Canadian program)

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B.B. Dutta writes: "The use of symbols-letters of the alphabet to denote unknowns, and equations are the foundations of the science of algebra. The Hindus were the first to make systematic use of the letters of the alphabet to denote unknowns. They were also the first to classify and make a detailed study of equations. Thus they may be said to have given birth to the modern science of algebra." [7] The great Indian mathematician Bhaskaracharya (1150 C.E.) produced extensive treatises on both plane and spherical trigonometry and algebra, and his works contain remarkable solutions of problems which were not discovered in Europe until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He preceded Newton by over 500 years in the discovery of the principles of differential calculus. A.L. Basham writes further, "The mathematical implications of zero (sunya) and infinity, never more than vaguely realized by classical authorities, were fully understood in medieval India. Earlier mathematicians had taught that X/0 = X, but Bhaskara proved the contrary. He also established mathematically what had been recognized in Indian theology at least a millennium earlier: that infinity, however divided, remains infinite, represented by the equation oo /X = oo." In the 14th century, Madhava, isolated in South India, developed a power series for the arc tangent function, apparently without the use of calculus, allowing the calculation of pi to any number of decimal places (since arctan 1 = pi/4). Whether he accomplished this by inventing a system as good as calculus or without the aid of calculus; either way it is astonishing.

Spiritually advanced cultures were not ignorant of the principles of mathematics, but they saw no necessity to explore those principles beyond that which was helpful in the advancement of God realization.

By the fifteenth century C.E. use of the new mathematical concepts from India had spread all over Europe to Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, among others. A.L. Basham states also that

The debt of the Western world to India in this respect [the field of mathematics] cannot be overestimated. Most of the great discoveries and inventions of which Europe is so proud would have been impossible without a developed system of mathematics, and this in turn would have been impossible if Europe had been shackled by the unwieldy system of Roman numerals. The unknown man who devised the new system was, from the world's point of view, after the Buddha, the most important son of India. His achievement, though easily taken for granted, was the work of an analytical mind of the first order, and he deserves much more honor than he has so far received.

Unfortunately, Eurocentrism has effectively concealed from the common man the fact that we owe much in the way of mathematics to ancient India. Reflection on this may cause modern man to consider more seriously the spiritual preoccupation of ancient India. The rishis (seers) were not men lacking in practical knowledge of the world, dwelling only in the realm of imagination. They were well developed in secular knowledge, yet only insofar as they felt it was necessary within a world view in which consciousness was held as primary.

In ancient India, mathematics served as a bridge between understanding material reality and the spiritual conception. Vedic mathematics differs profoundly from Greek mathematics in that knowledge for its own sake (for its aesthetic satisfaction) did not appeal to the Indian mind. The mathematics of the Vedas lacks the cold, clear, geometric precision of the West; rather, it is cloaked in the poetic language which so distinguishes the East. Vedic mathematicians strongly felt that every discipline must have a purpose, and believed that the ultimate goal of life was to achieve self-realization and love of God and thereby be released from the cycle of birth and death. Those practices which furthered this end either directly or indirectly were practiced most rigorously. Outside of the religio-astronomical sphere, only the problems of day to day life (such as purchasing and bartering) interested the Indian mathematicians.

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I wear the swastika as part of my Vedic ancestry....interestingly enough, i found this

Atomic theory is an ancient science. The earliest record of it can be found in Vedic texts from india which are many thousands of years old.

Legend has it that the Vedic civilisation was highly advanced. The sages that oversaw its development, through their mystic insight and deep meditation, discovered the ancient symbols of spirituality: Aumkara and Swastika. They also discovered many scientific principles that they applied to develop a highly advanced technology. They gave the atom its sanskrit name "Anu".

While the technical achievements of this ancient civilisation have been forgotten the archetypal symbols of spirituality have maintained their eminence in our consciousness. Now, thanks to advances in modern atomic theory, the atomic basis of these divine symbols can be appreciated.

Western theories of the atom took shape in the 18th and 19th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, John Dalton theorised that an atom was an indivisible particle of an element. However, after the electron was discovered in 1897, and then the proton several years later, the atom model was revised. In 1909, Ernest Rutherford showed that atoms were mostly empty space, revising the model of an atom to a tight positive nucleus containing the protons and neutrons with electrons around it; by 1913, Danish physicist Neils Bohr envisioned a planetary arrangement in which the electrons orbited the nucleus at different energy levels.

The current way of describing an electron is a model called the charge cloud model/quantum mechanical model/orbital model. This model based on the idea of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which states that we do not know the precise location or the velocity of any given electron. The model uses indistinct and overlapping "probability clouds" to approximate the position of an electron.

Where a cloud is dense, the probability of finding an electron in that vicinity is low. In this model, each electron energy level is denoted by numbers that take concentric shells as suggested by the Bohr model because there are overlaps in the ordering of the energy levels.

In the case of the carbon atom the electrons occupy four tear drop shaped clouds in a tetrahedron-like arrangement. These clouds represent the areas in which the electrons spend most of their time. They move so rapidly in this zone that they form a cloud rather than a specific flight path

Recently a number of researchers have suggested that within these clouds exist specific zones that the electrons favour. These zones form a spiral around the surface of each of the tear drop shaped clouds.

This new development came into the attention of a great Indian saint and mystic. Disciples were encouraged to develop the principle as it related to the carbon atom.In deep meditation one of those disciples, who was a chemist,spontaneously realised the true significance of this theory:

The electron's high probability zone formed spiral standing waves around the carbon atom's nucleus. When this configuration was viewed from certain angles the physicist was surprised to find that the spirals formed recognisable symbols.

In the first view a 3–dimensional Aumkara could be seen. From a different angle that Aumkara became a flat, 2-dimensional Swastika. The Swastika, he concluded, was actually 2-D representation of the 3-D aumkara.

Rotating the model to another angle shows those symbols change into the Greek Alpha and Omega. At a cosmic level the symbols of Eastern spirituality (Aumkara and Swastika) are literally and only different aspects of the same spiritual truth that is also represented by the symbols of Western spirituality (Alpha and Omega).

All people, objects and even energy itself are expressions of the same divinity that so many religions, cultures and philosophies have tried to claim exclusively as their own.

The Carbon atom, by containing within it these universal symbols, demonstrates that matter is a manifestation of the same Divine consciousness experienced by the saints and sages of all history. Matter is innately spiritual.

The Universe does not exist separately from the Universal Consciousness; it is a direct expression of it.

Living matter, which is carbon based, must have a unique role in this expression. A saint is one who lives in eternal experience of this all pervading divine purpose.

All people, objects and even energy itself are expressions of the same divinity

The alpha and omega are traditionally ascribed to Christ. In india the Deity called Ganesha presides over the Swastika and Aumkara.

There are some remarkable similarities between the two:
Both deities demonstrate the value of childlike innocence; Ganesha is himself an eternal child famous for his simple wisdom ;while Christ, son of god, often exhorted his disciples to "be as little children";

They both are divine children; both conceived immaculately;, both divine sons of a holy trinity (Christ is the son of Yahweh and The Holy Spirit/Mary and Ganesha son of Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati).

Are Ganesha and Christ the one and the same deity?

Each, like their symbols that exist as different aspects of the carbon atom, represent different aspects of the archetypal cosmic child.

Thus the distinction between Eastern and Western spirituality, like any division based on race,culture or belief, is no more than ignorance of the true spiritual nature of the universe and all that exists within it.

What he meant to say is that INDIANS WERE SMART. They are the victim of their own success. Preaching and practicing peace did not help them. Moguls invaded, then the British and everything went to hell....

Moral of the story is "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" - otherwise you lose.

A question for Highlyfanatic: Somehow I feel that this originated with India. Do you know if this statement true? :-
"The Arabs are ultimately responsible for the fact that mathematicians the world over today use the letter 'x' to designate the unknown quantity – 'x' being the first letter of the Spanish word xay, which is a deformation of the Arabic shay, meaning simply 'thing'."

Second statement for HighlyFanatic, because I think the Indian contribution is being usurped but have no facts to prove it:
"Mathematics
Bold experiments and unique innovations in the field of mathematics were carried out by Muslim mathematicians who developed this science to an exceptionally high degree. Algebra may be said to have been invented by the Greeks, but according to Oelsner, "it was confined to furnishing amusement for the plays of the goblet" Muslims developed it and applied it to higher purposes.
Thus, The first great Muslim mathematician, Al-Khawarizmi, invented the subject of algebra (al-Jabr), which was further developed by others, most notably Umar Khayyam. Al-Khawarizmi's work, in Latin translation, brought the Arabic numerals along with the mathematics to Europe, through Spain. The word "algorithm" is derived from his name.

The Muslims invented the symbol for zero (The word "cipher" comes from Arabic sifr), and they organized the numbers into the decimal system - base 10. Additionally, they invented the symbol to express an unknown quantity, i.e. variables like x.

They invented spherical trigonometry, discovered the tangent and were first, "to introduce the sine of arc in Trigonometrical Calculations" Zero is an invaluable addition made to mathematical science by the Muslims. They have also shown remarkable progress in mathematical geography."

The Muslims invented the symbol for zero (The word "cipher" comes from Arabic sifr), and they organized the numbers into the decimal system - base 10. Additionally, they invented the symbol to express an unknown quantity, i.e. variables like x.

Click to expand...

The nr. zero was invented independently in India and
by the Maya. In India a decimal system was used, like
ours, but they used an empty space for zero up to 3rd
Century BC. This was confusing for an empty space was
also used to separate numbers, and so they invented
the dot for a zero. The first evidence for the use of
the symbol that we now know as zero stems from the 7th
century AD. The Maya invented the number zero for
their calendars in the 3rd century AD.
The number zero reached European civilisation through
the Arabs after 800 AD. The Greek and Roman did not
need the number zero for they did their calculations
on an abacus. The name 'zero' comes from the arabic
'sifr'.
(Data from the book "the calender" by D. E. Duncan).

Response #: 1 of 1
Author: chaffer
No one person appears to have invented algebra in all its complexity and
glory. Instead, it appears to have sort of "grown up." Western Europeans
learned their algebra from the works of the Persian mathematician Muhammed ibn Musa al-Khowarizmi. The word, algebra, is a corruption of al-jabr which is part of the title of his treatise, Hisab al-jabr w'al muqabalah which means something like, "the science of reunion and reduction." It is pretty clear that the Persians got some of these ideas from earlier work of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Chinese, Hindus, and who knows else.

The term 'arabic numerals' was coined by Westerners who didn't understand where the Arabs got their numerals from. The Arabs themselves got them from the Hindus, including the zero. Al-Khwarizmi was the first Arab to describe the Hindu numerals. He wrote about them in his book "On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals" in 825AD.

This was followed by al-Kindi who wrote "On the Use of the Indian Numerals" (Ketab fi Isti'mal al-'Adad al-Hindi) about 830AD. The fact that the Arabs themselves acknowledge their numerals are Hindu numerals is the term they give their numerals: ÃÑÞÇã åäÏíÉ arqam hindiyyah which literally means 'Hindu numerals'. The concept of Zero as a number, not just as an empty place holder, was invented by the Hindus.

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death(Time), the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

While zero was used during the period of Gautama Buddha, I could not find any specific reference on the net. May be others would have better luck. That would put Zero around 700 BC - whether in India or China.

Recalling the scene, Oppenheimer said: "A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. There floated through my mind a line from the "Bhagavad-Gita" in which Krishna is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty: "I am become death: the destroyer of worlds."

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to reply and give me some good leads.
Anyone know where Highly Fanatic is? As he is so partial to things Indian I thought he might know the answers to the Indian contribution, objectivity aside and acceptably so.

# India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history.

# When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)

# The name 'India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.

# The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name `Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus.

# Chess was invented in India.

# Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which originated in India.

# The 'Place Value System' and the 'Decimal System' were developed in India in 100 B.C.

# The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara Temple at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The shikhara of the temple is made from a single 80-tonne piece of granite. This magnificent temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola.

# India is the largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest Country in the world, and one of the most ancient civilizations.

# The game of Snakes & Ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat'. The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. In time, the game underwent several modifications, but its meaning remained the same, i.e. good deeds take people to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.

# The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after leveling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.

# India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world.

# The largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways, employing over a million people.

# The world's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

# Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The Father of Medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.

# India was one of the richest countries till the time of British rule in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India's wealth, had come looking for a sea route to India when he discovered America by mistake.

# The Art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh over 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word 'NAVGATIH'. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.

# Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the Sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. According to his calculation, the time taken by the Earth to orbit the Sun was 365.258756484 days.

# The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, long before the European mathematicians.

# Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus also originated in India. Quadratic Equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 (i.e. 10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Terra: 10*12(10 to the power of 12).

# Until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds in the world (Source : Gemological Institute of America).

# The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.

# Sushruta is regarded as the Father of Surgery. Over 2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones, plastic surgery and brain surgeries.

# Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient Indian medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.

# India exports software to 90 countries.

# The four religions born in India - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.

# Jainism and Buddhism were founded in India in 600 B.C. and 500 B.C. respectively.

# Islam is India's and the world's second largest religion.

# There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country, including the Muslim world.

# The oldest European church and synagogue in India are in the city of Cochin. They were built in 1503 and 1568 respectively.

# Jews and Christians have lived continuously in India since 200 B.C. and 52 A.D. respectively

# The largest religious building in the world is Angkor Wat, a Hindu Temple in Cambodia built at the end of the 11th century.

# The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.

# Sikhism originated in the Holy city of Amritsar in Punjab. Famous for housing the Golden Temple, the city was founded in 1577.

# Varanasi, also known as Benaras, was called "the Ancient City" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C., and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.

# India provides safety for more than 300,000 refugees originally from Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who escaped to flee religious and political persecution.

# His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, runs his government in exile from Dharmashala in northern India.

# Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.

Albert Einstein, German Scientist: "We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!"

Mark Twain, American Author: "India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!"

"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked."

"In religion, India is the only millionaire... the One land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined."

Will Durant, American Historian: “It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system.”

"India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings."

"India is the motherland of our race and Sanskrit is the mother of Indo-European languages. She is the mother of our philosophy, of our mathematics, mother of ideals embodied in Christianity and mother of our democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all." (‘Story of Civilization’)

Henry David Thoreau, American Thinker /Author: Whenever I have read any part of the Vedas, I have felt that some unearthly and unknown light illuminated me. In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of sectarianism. It is of all ages, climbs, and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge. When I read it, I feel that I am under the spangled heavens of a summer night.

R.W. Emerson, American Author: In the great books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence, which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the questions that exercise us.

William James, American Author: "From the Vedas we learn a practical art of surgery, medicine, music, house building under which mechanized art is included. They are encyclopedia of every aspect of life, culture, religion, science, ethics, law, cosmology and meteorology."

Max Muller, German Scholar: "If I were to look over the whole world to find out a country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow – in some part a very paradise on earth – I should point to India."

"There is no book in the world that is so thrilling, stirring and inspiring as the Upanishads." (‘Sacred Books of the East’)

Romain Rolland, French Philosopher: If there is one place on the face of this Earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest day when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

Apollonius Tyanaeus, Ancient Greek Traveler: "In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing."

Dr Arnold Toynbee, British Historian: “It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way.”

Hu Shih (Former Chinese Ambassador to USA): "India conquered and dominated China for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across its border." (Bhavan Journal 15.05.1999)

Swami Vivekananda, Indian Philosopher: "Civilizations have arisen in other parts of the world. In ancient and modern times, wonderful ideas have been carried forward from one race to another...But mark you, my friends, it has been always with the blast of war trumpets and the march of embattled cohorts. Each idea had to be soaked in a deluge of blood..... Each word of power had to be followed by the groans of millions, by the wails of orphans, by the tears of widows. This, many other nations have taught; but India for thousands of years peacefully existed. Here activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist... Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from until now, ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, of all nations of the world, have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live....!"

Shri Aurovindo: "India of the ages is not dead nor has she spoken her last creative word; she lives and has still something to do for herself and the human peoples. And that which must seek now to awake is not anglicised oriental people, docile pupil of the West and doomed to repeat the cycle of the occident's success and failure, but still the ancient immemorable Shakti recovering her deepest self, lifting her head higher towards the supreme source of light and strength and turning to discover the complete meaning and a vaster form of her Dharma."

Sir William Jones, British Orientalist: "The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity is of wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either."